It started with a gearbox that let go on a Tuesday.

Four seasons ago the saildrive on my boat gave up halfway through a passage that was supposed to be the easy leg of the summer. Back on the pontoon I did what every owner does: asked around, collected three phone numbers on the back of a chandlery receipt, and started ringing.

One never answered. One quoted over the phone without seeing the boat, then doubled it when he did. The third turned up, did honest work, charged fairly — and I only found him because a neighbour four berths down happened to mention his name. That's not a market. That's luck.

What struck me afterwards was that the engineers were just as frustrated. The good ones were quietly booked through word of mouth all summer and then stared at an empty diary from November. They were paying flat monthly fees to lead sites that sent them nothing in the off-season, and competing on price against people with no tickets and no insurance.

So we built the thing both sides said they wanted. Every Verified professional is checked before the badge goes on: Verified means we've checked their insurance, and for engineering, gas and survey work, their qualifications or experience. Owners can post a job and receive up to 3 private quotes. Professionals get work without a flat fee hanging over them in a dead month, and a badge that means something because we turn applications down.

Everything since — the Marine Match Boat Passport that follows the boat, payment held by Stripe until the job is signed off so nobody's out of pocket, two-way reviews so reputation cuts both ways — came from the same instinct: make the honest way of doing this the easy way.